Show #221: 02.19.10
Jim and Greg welcome Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo for a conversation and one-of-a-kind, live punk performance.

can you stream this live or do you need to wait til its posted as a podcast?

Rivers should play more songs with Riot Girrrl bands and less with Lil' Wayne. That version of Sweater Song reminded me of everything good about Weezer.

Hell yeah, I just listened to that! Great show so far. Very cool.

Two years later and Greg is still calling the demo compilations "Home Alone!!!" ARGH!!!!

This interview is wonderful, by the way. The guys are asking all the right questions. Very enjoyable.

An "In The Garage"/"Heart Songs" medley, wow. Insane shit!

this is seriously the best SO episode in ages. great questions from jim and greg. terrific answers from rivers. and a brilliant fucking concept (and setlist) taboot.

i'm not a weezer fanboy by any means (love the first two records, have paid minimal attention to their post2000 output), but that show seriously made me reconsider rivers' place in the list of "the best songwriters of the past 20 years." if nothing else, he's undoubtedly propen himself as one of the coolest rock stars that the last 20 years have seen.

Right on.

When you factor in the two brilliant Alone compilations (the consistency and sheer enjoyability of these reminds of listening to unreleased non album tracks by Neil Young or Ween, where they're just as good as the stuff that made it onto the albums) along with all the albums and fantastic b-sides, he ends up ranking absurdly high on my list of "songwriters who have written a startling number of my favorite pieces of music ever."

Not to mention that he's just one of the best people ever. Of course. Totally peerless, too. Just the best dude. I can't do anything but spew hyperbole when his name comes up but it's all true.

great songs aside (and admittingly i don't love them nearly as much as you or many SOMBies do...) this comment is really what rang most true during the interview w/ me. i've always had this notion that rivers is fairly nuts or whatever, but the interview erases that notion almost entirely. totally sane, approachable, honest, self depracating, acceptible of criticism, proud of his work and many more admirable qualities.

Yeah, I really loved his whole vibe. Everyone, including but not limited to artists in the public eye, should aspire to have that much humility. He did an NPR interview with Teri Gross a while back that was also very revealing and informative, but he was a lot calmer and a lot slower to answer the questions, which didn't make me think less of him although I couldn't help but notice it. This time, though, he was really energetic and funny and just sounded like he was having a great time.

I remember him posting online about how much he liked the Sound Opinions radio show a few years back so maybe the guy was just thrilled to be in the presence of his heroes!

Usually update my podcasts on Monday morning and this week the new SO was not there as it usually has been upped by then. I'll be checking it out soon enough though.

Thanks for all the kind words. Hope we can keep up this level of show throughout the entire year.

Jason